Residents of Effingham County, Georgia, have filed a RICO racketeering lawsuit against local government officials and OpenAI, alleging a conspiracy to approve a massive data center project known as "Project Camellia." The plaintiffs—Dr. Michelle Finch-Mincey, Lehman Mincey Jr., and Raymond Carver—claim the defendants used fraud, concealment, and non-disclosure agreements to hide the nature of the project from the public until key contracts were signed.
The lawsuit names several Effingham County Commissioners, including Chairperson Damon Rahn, Forrest Floyd, Roger Burdette, Jamie DeLoach, Elizabeth Helmly, and Phil Kieffer. Other defendants include County Manager Tim Callanan, Effingham County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) CEO Brandt Herndon, the IDA itself, OpenAI, Octans GA LLC, and Savannah Industrial Development LLC. The plaintiffs allege the parties engaged in improper land transactions, zoning violations, and civil conspiracy to advance the project through closed-door decisions.
Project Camellia is a large-scale data center development expected to cost between $20 billion and $30 billion. The project is planned to be built in five phases with a compute capacity of 3.2 gigawatts. While OpenAI has promised that the facility will use a closed-loop water system to minimize water use and will pay for all infrastructure upgrades to avoid impacting community utility costs, residents claim the project has already harmed property values. The plaintiffs noted that purchase offers for nearby residential properties have dropped or been withdrawn since the project was announced.
The legal action utilizes Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a statute originally designed to combat organized crime. The plaintiffs argue that the defendants used misleading public statements and confidential negotiations to ensure residents remained unaware of the project's scope for as long as possible.
